


Like Humans Do

by raspberrylimonade



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, Jealous Lydia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 18:57:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9671720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raspberrylimonade/pseuds/raspberrylimonade
Summary: Turns out, Lydia set herself up to be jealous of a certain werecoyote.





	

**Author's Note:**

> set between end of season 3 and early season 4

“Will you please just ask Stiles out already?”

Lydia shoved a textbook into her locker and froze. Did she hear correctly? Her brow furrowed and her head turned sharply towards the tall, dirty blonde-haired girl who had moments before slammed into the lockers and blurted out the unexpected question.

“Sorry - what?” Lydia managed. There were a couple of things Lydia expected to hear from a supernatural creature who ran up to her with desperate, pleading eyes - “Do you know what happened to so-and-so?” perhaps - but certainly not _this_.

“Stiles,” Malia replied, as if it were straightforward. “You need to ask him out. Soon.”

Lydia had to blink a few times. “Are you asking me to wreck your relationship with Stiles?”

“Do you not like him?”

She must have had a really astonished look on her face because the next thing she knew, the werecoyote started apologising profusely.

“I’m so sorry, if I misread the signals, I mean, Scott was teaching me how to read people’s scents, and listen to their heartbeats, and I - I kinda practiced on you, because you have lots of scents coming off you and I thought it was because you’re in love with Stiles, and - “ Malia rambled, stumbling over her words.

More students filed into the hallway, including the various sports teams coming in from their morning trainings. Lydia abruptly shushed the other girl, in case any lacrosse-playing werewolf walked into supernatural hearing range. Pulling Malia by the wrist, she dragged the coyote down the hallway and into the furthest classroom she could think of from their alpha’s locker.

“Yes, I like Stiles, okay?” she whispered once they were in the limited privacy of the English classroom. “But Stiles is with _you_. And he’s happy, so I’m happy, and I also like you, that’s why I’m not doing anything.” She never thought that when she first admitted her feelings for the lanky boy, it would be to his girlfriend, of all people. “Where is all this coming from anyway?”

Malia was starting to mirror the banshee’s confused expression from earlier. “This is what humans do, right? Pretend to date someone to make other people jealous?”

“Only in stupid teen novels!”

The taller girl frowned. “Wasn’t that why you brought me to the bookstore?”

“No!” Her shoulders sagged in exasperation and she wrung her hands dramatically, before realising those traits were strikingly similar to that of a certain boy who was the cause of this conversation and stopped herself. Lydia could hear his voice in her head. _Take her out, go to the mall, have a girls’ day, or something. Introduce her to random human activities._ That was why they had been at the bookstore, browsing the fiction section while Lydia explained to Kira and Malia how to identify good and bad novels from the summaries on the back.

Apparently Malia picked up a really bad chick flick equivalent of a book.

The banshee sighed. “Does Stiles know about this?”

Probably not.

“I think so? I mean, I never actually told him, but you guys said he was smart, so I thought he would have figured it out…”

* * *

Lacrosse practice ended late. That meant Scott McCall rushed off to work and Stiles Stilinski was exhausted and took his time packing his stuff up. In effect, Stiles was the last one in the locker room.

He was rummaging through his locker, only his bottom half left unhidden by the metal door, when the two girls approached him.

Lydia coughed to get his attention. “We need to talk, Stiles,” she said, her voice coming out odd and squeaky. Her heart wasn’t hammering in apprehension - she had long gotten that under control - but she could still feel it beating heavily inside her throat.

There was a rough scuffling sound inside the locker, and she imagined the boy (whose ass was currently sticking out in what would in another situation be a wonderful view) having a small spasm. His head emerged two seconds later, dark hair sticking to his face. His eyes widened when he saw the girls and he immediately straightened up. One of his hands still remained behind the locker door and Lydia suspected it was ready to grab a baseball bat, pending the subject of their talk.

She opened her mouth to speak, but the werecoyote beat her to it.

“I’m dating you to make Lydia jealous.”

Oh Malia. Ever the blunt one.

That ripped off the band aid quickly. Lydia swallowed the uneasiness in her throat and watched for Stiles’ reaction. His face went from shock, to hurt, to confusion, before it finally settled on bewilderment.

“Why do you wanna make Lydia - wait, are you - ?” he gestured wildly between the two girls.

Malia frowned, confused. “Am I what?”

Lydia groaned and stepped forward. “She’s not trying to make me jealous of you, she’s trying to make me jealous of _her_.”

Stiles opened and closed his mouth like a fish.

“Because you love her,” Malia explained “And I think she loves you too. I wanted to make her ask you out. That’s what humans do, right? Try to help people in love get together.”

Lydia had never seen Stiles stay so still for so long before.

“Wolf senses,” Malia added, after a long, uneasy silence. “I can your heartbeats. And smell your…chemoromones? Is that what it’s called? I don’t really remember…” she trailed off as Stiles suddenly - finally - moved, dragging a hand through his hair.

He clenched and relaxed his neck, mumbled some incoherent lines and, although he did not look at his hands, counted his fingers, by curling his hands into fists then releasing each finger one by one. It was picked up by both girls, and Malia cast Lydia a worried glance. Lydia could only return the expression. Both of them had been around the boy long enough to let him go through his motions.

He boy in question finally looked up. He huffed. “Okay.” Then he reached out and grabbed his girlfriend’s hand, dragging her towards the door. He whipped around on his third step, raising his free hand at Lydia. “Don’t go anywhere.”

Malia managed to look over her shoulder and raise a questioning eyebrow before she was pulled out of the locker room.

Lydia didn’t go anywhere. Part of her wanted to creep over to the door and find out how Stiles and Malia’s conversation was going. But her feet were planted and she only fidgeted on the spot until Stiles reentered, taking very large, brisk strides towards her.

He passed her and stopped abruptly next to his still open locker.

“So…you love me.”

It was a statement rather than a question. Lydia opened her mouth, but her answer caught in her throat.

_Deep breaths, Lydia_ , the banshee reminded herself. “I think Malia made it clear,” she finally said, her throat constricting her voice.

His brown eyes locked onto hers, and Lydia forced herself to look away before she drowned inside them. They were always so warm and deep and made her heart sigh.

When he did not say anything, she cleared her throat and continued, “Look, I would’ve have told you myself, but I was still trying to figure it out and come to terms with it myself, and there was never a right time…”

She trailed off as Stiles hefted his school bag and took two quick steps towards her, arm half outstretched, before he paused and pulled back, his arm running through his hair for the second time that day.

“You - oh my god…” he mumbled, and then he looked at her again. “okay, um, so…do you want to go out with me sometime? This weekend, maybe, on a date, perhaps?”

“Um, yeah. Sure.” Her voice was disgustingly high-pitched and she had to cough to cover it up.

Stiles, however, was anxiously bouncing on balls of his foot and seemed not to notice. “Okay, great. I, uh…” he took another step and turned his body, slowly circling around the banshee as if he couldn’t decided whether he wanted to step towards her or not. “I…” - his arms jerked towards the exit - “gotta go give Malia a long lecture on the complexities of social phenomena such as dating, and grab dinner for my dad now, but, I’ll see you on…Saturday - is that good? Yeah, um great so - ” She caught a flash in his eyes - the flash Lydia knew meant he was running on adrenaline and was going to do something reckless and impulsive - before Stiles leaned over and pecked her on the cheek. “ - uh, see you!”

And then he dashed out of the door.

It was just a light kiss, but it felt like she’d been branded.

Malia walked in, looking over her shoulder, then she stopped in her tracks and scrunched up her nose.

“The smell is overwhelming - more so than the smell of sweat - and your heart is beating really fast. What happened - did you ask him?”

“He asked me,” Lydia breathed.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm raspberrylimonade on tumblr and stlnskissmartin on twitter


End file.
